After a righteous hailstorm of criticism, Los Angeles band Day Above Ground finally took its racist and sexist music video “Asian Girlz” off YouTube. The supposed satirical ballad by the crappy excuse for an alternative rock outfit was chalk full of ultra-degrading lyrics such as “Korean barbecue/Bitch I love you/I love your creamy yellow thighs/Oh, your slanted eyes.” As was to be expected, the song drew the ire of many when the video went up last week. AF3IRM, a Filipina feminist group, whipped up swift web-based activism in the form of a petition calling on venues and companies to neither host nor sponsor the band. Putting on the pressure, the organization reports that House of Blues cancelled a scheduled appearance and On-Stage Sounds dropped its sponsorship.
So what's a band to do? After their offensive video directed by Michael Steinberg was brought down, Day Above Ground uploaded “American Dream” and noted the song as a “response to the response.”
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Our response? It's a plague unleashed upon listening ears everywhere! The video notes in its intro that “American Dream” was “recorded, mixed, shot, edited and uploaded” all within a day's time…and it sounds like it, too!
See the video below…
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Note to Day Above Ground: When met with outrage over a racist song that demeans Asian-American women, it's pathetic to scream “This American Dream ain't always what it seems” and cry like you're the marginalized ones. Making everything worse, the song in 'response to the response' is a dreadful Limp Bizkit meets Linkin Park sonic nightmare. Can anyone make it to the poor man's Chester Bennington chorus without laughing?
A genuine apology and acknowledgement of their racist, sexist folly would have been better than a whiny, shitty followup that obviously tries to capitalize on what is sure to be short-lived name recognition. Failing to get it, lead singer Joe Anselm told the Huffington Post that “Asian Girlz” was simply satire.
“We're actually worshiping the Asian woman,” he said in an interview. “It's plain to see that we're the ones who are being subordinated underneath this image, this ideal Asian goddess.”
AF3IRM pledges to not allow Day Above Ground to live 'Asian Girlz' down. Chairperson Jollene Levid said in a statement that her group is “organizing to call every and any house, nightspot, venue, where this band intends to play” and plans to “protest any event” within their reach until band members apologize “for their repulsive portrayal of women, especially Asian-American women.”
That's bad news for Day Above Ground, a desperate band who tried to make a name for itself off of a would-be misogynist anthem. The approach doesn't work anyway. Just ask Canadian rockers Your Best Friend's Ex how great they are doing these days!
Who? Yeah, that's right…
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Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!